Abbreviation for World Wide Web Consortium, the organization that sets standards for the web and HTML. Write out as “World Wide Web Consortium” on first mention.
Use instead of wish or desire. Do not confuse with need. Be sure to use the term that is appropriate to the situation. Need connotes a requirement or obligation; want indicates that the user has a choice of actions.
Microsoft style
If you want to use a laser printer, you need a laser printer driver.
Not Microsoft style
If you wish to format the entire word, double-click it.
Add the controls and functionality that you desire.
All uses of web as a modifier are lowercase except when following the user interface and in feature names such as Web Slice. Capitalize all words in the phrase World Wide Web, but the shortened form the web is lowercase.
The following are among the web-based terms that are one word:
webpage
website
webcam
webcast
webmaster
webzine
The following are among the web-based terms that are hyphenated:
web-centric
web-based
web-enabled
The following are among the web-based terms that are two words:
web address
web browser
web content
web crawler
web document
web folder
Office Web Apps are online companions to the Microsoft Office client applications (programs) Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. With Office Web Apps, customers can use the familiar Office user interface in a browser, either on the Internet or on a SharePoint site. The documents are stored on a website and viewed in a browser. Office Web Apps are compatible with Office 2010 programs that are locally installed.
Office Web Apps offer most, but not all, the features of the Office 2010 client programs. Therefore, in any discussion or mention of Office Web Apps, it is important that you not mislead users. In essence, the user’s “experience” of Office is extended to the web, but Office is still a suite of desktop programs. You cannot promise or imply that there is 100% fidelity between the client programs and Office Web Apps, and you cannot say or imply that the online experience will be identical to the desktop experience.
The following table contains examples of the kinds of things that you can and cannot say about Office Web Apps.
The category title Microsoft Office Web Apps applies to the following four Web Apps:
Microsoft Excel Web App
Microsoft OneNote Web App
Microsoft PowerPoint Web App
Microsoft Word Web App
Microsoft Outlook Web App is licensed separately; therefore, it is not included under the category title Microsoft Office Web Apps.
On first mention
On first mention of the category title or an individual product name, precede the title or name with Microsoft and use appropriate trademarks, as follows:
Microsoft® Office Web Apps (for the category)
Microsoft® Excel® Web App (for an individual program name)
On second mention
On second mention, Microsoft is not required:
Office Web Apps (for the category)
Excel Web App (for an individual program name)
On subsequent mentions
On subsequent mentions of the category title or the individual product names, you may omit Microsoft, but do not omit Web App, because this name distinguishes the Web App from the desktop application. The only exception to this rule is that Web App may be omitted in the user interface if space is limited.
On subsequent mentions, it is also all right to shorten Office Web Apps to Web Apps, especially if the use of “Office” is becoming repetitive. Web Apps is capitalized. For example, it is all right to say “Office 2010 includes a plug-in for opening Office documents directly from the Web Apps.”
In general, when Office Web Apps is used as a noun to mean the product, do not precede it with the definite article the. When it is used as an adjective, you can precede it with the definite article the. It is all right to precede Web Apps with the definite article the. In addition, when you are referring to Office Web Apps collectively or generically, you may precede the term with the definite article the.
Microsoft style
If Office desktop applications are not installed on your computer, you can use Office Web Apps to create documents.
When you use Office Web Apps, all your documents are created, edited, and stored on a server.
Use your web browser and Internet connection to access Office Web Apps.
There are some differences between the features of the Office Web Apps and the Office 2010 applications.
In general, when a specific Web App is used as a noun, do not precede it with the definite article the. When it is used as an adjective, you can precede it with the definite article the.
Microsoft style
Office Web Apps are available on SkyDrive for free.
The Word Web App ribbon is familiar if you’re used to working in Word 2007 or Word 2010.
The document opens for editing in the appropriate Web App.
In smaller organizations, you can deploy the Office Web Apps components on a single SharePoint 2010 Products server.
In Reading view, Word Web App displays all content and formatting.
Open the Excel Web App spreadsheet from SkyDrive.
Not Microsoft style
The Office Web Apps are interoperable with the Office client.
The Word Web App is familiar if you’re used to working in Word 2007 or Word 2010.
Use to introduce a list, as in code or formulas, to define the meaning of elements such as variables or symbols.
Microsoft style
Use the following formula to calculate the return, where:
r = rate of interest
n = number of months
p = principal
Use to refer only to something occurring in time. Do not use as a synonym for although or whereas.
Microsoft style
Fill out your registration card while you wait for Setup to be completed.
Although the icon indicates that the print job is finished, you may have to wait until a previous job is finished.
Not Microsoft style
While the icon indicates that the print job is finished, you may have to wait until a previous job is finished.
Although there is no linguistic basis for not using that to refer to people, as in “the man that was walking,” it is considered more polite to use who instead of that in references to people. Therefore, use who, not that, to introduce clauses referring to users.
Microsoft style
Custom Setup is for experienced users who want to alter the standard Windows configuration.
Not Microsoft style
Custom Setup is for experienced users that want to alter the standard Windows configuration.
Use instead of WiFi, wifi, or Wifi. Capitalize and hyphenate when referring specifically to Wi-Fi technologies. When possible, use a general phrase such as wireless network instead.
This term is a proper noun and a registered trademark. However, do not include the registered trademark symbol.
When possible, use a general phrase instead, such as wireless network, or refer to the specific wireless technology that you are describing, such as wireless LAN.
Always use the word character with wildcard when referring to a keyboard character that can be used to represent one or many characters, such as the * or ? keyboard character.
Wildcard is one word.
Note capitalization. The name of the Microsoft antispyware product. The short form of the name is Windows AntiSpyware. See also antispyware.
Generic term encompassing events occurring in the various versions of Windows.
Microsoft style
The Windows 7 Event Log service writes Windows Events to one of several log files that reside on the user’s computer.
You can also refer to the version number when referring to version-specific events. For example, you can say Windows 7 Events or Windows Server 2008 Events.
Do not use as a synonym for Internet Explorer. Windows Explorer is a feature of Windows operating systems that shows the hierarchical structure of the files and folders on a computer.
Do not precede with the and do not shorten to Explorer.
Do not use Windows NT as a modifier for aspects or elements of Windows NT Server or Windows NT Workstation products unless you have no other choice. Instead, say that a product or process runs on one of these products, not is on one of them.
Microsoft style
The printer is attached to a computer running Windows NT Server.
The Microsoft Exchange Client software is on a computer running Windows NT Workstation.
Not Microsoft style
Windows NT Server server
Windows NT system
Use Windows as a modifier for aspects or elements of the Windows operating system itself. Do not use Windows to modify the names of programs, hardware, or development methods that are based on or run on the Windows operating system. Use Windows-based or running Windows instead. To avoid a ridiculous construction, the term Windows user is all right to use.
Microsoft style
Windows-based application
Windows-based device
the Windows Recycle Bin
a computer running Windows
Not Microsoft style
Windows application
Windows computer
All right to use to refer to the Windows Sockets API. Do not use Sockets unless you have no other choice.
Use instead of wish or desire. Do not confuse with need. Be sure to use the term that is appropriate to the situation. Need connotes a requirement or obligation; want indicates that the user has a choice of actions.
Microsoft style
If you want to use a laser printer, you need a laser printer driver.
Not Microsoft style
If you wish to format the entire word, double-click it.
Add the controls and functionality that you desire.
Always use lowercase for the generic term wizard. Capitalize wizard if it is part of a feature name that appears in the user interface. Refer to an individual screen in a wizard as a page.
Use bold formatting for wizard page names. Use bold formatting for wizard names only in procedures and only if the name is clicked.
Microsoft style
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.
In the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, on the Welcome to SharePoint Products page, click Next.
On the Identify Fact and Dimension Tables page, the fact and dimension tables identified by the wizard are displayed.
Use the following guidelines for word-processing terms:
As an adjective, use the hyphenated form word-processed or word-processing.
As a noun, use word processor or word processing.
As a verb, do not use word process or word processing. Use write, format, or another term instead.
Two words. Do not use work area unless the term has a specific meaning in a particular product. Use workspace to refer to the area within a window where the user interacts with the program.
A tabbed section of a workbook that you use in Excel to store and work with data. Also called a spreadsheet. A worksheet consists of cells that are organized into columns and rows. A workbook can contain one or more worksheets, also called spreadsheets.
One word. Refers to the area within the application window where the user interacts with a program. See also desktop.
One word. Use to refer to a personal computer used by an individual in a network. A workstation is the client in a client/server system.
Capitalize all the words of the phrase World Wide Web. However, if you use the web, use lowercase.
Use on to refer to material existing on the web. You can use to or on to refer to the action of creating and publishing something to the web or on the web.
Always hyphenate. Related to read/write, but write-only and read-only refer to properties of files, whereas read/write refers to a level of permissions granted to users.